Released March 12, 2020
“The evolution of the Canadian labour market threatens to aggravate the challenges facing resettled refugees. We propose six recommendations for the Government of Canada to better support GARs to succeed in the labour market.”
Executive Summary
“In 2017, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) praised Canada for resettling 46,700 refugees the previous year, stating it was ‘the largest amount of refugees admitted [to] Canada since the implementation of the 1976 Immigration Act.’ The demand for safe havens such as Canada is expected to only grow due to the effects of various global crises, including climate change. According to the UNHCR, there are 70.8 million displaced people worldwide, 25.9 million of whom are refugees. Through its Immigration Levels Plan, Canada remains committed to continuing to admit a stable number of refugees moving forward.
With such a commitment, it is important for Canada to ensure it adequately supports refugee newcomers to successfully transition into meaningful employment. The evolution of the Canadian labour market threatens to aggravate the challenges facing resettled refugees. This applies especially to government-assisted refugees (GARs), who tend to have the most difficulty transitioning into work in Canada due to lower skills levels and a lack of social networks, among other compounding barriers — including discrimination. Indeed, only 57 percent of GARs reported employment income within five years of arrival. The evolving labour market is likely to compound the challenges facing GARs, as labour demand declines overall and shifts towards a greater emphasis on social skills — which are culturally mediated and subject to bias in their assessment by potential employers.
We propose six recommendations for the Government of Canada to better support GARs to succeed in the labour market. The first of these focuses on settlement services and we recommend the government support the development of collaborative options for GARs to simultaneously improve language skills, acquire Canadian work experience and earn wages. We further recommend the government make efforts to help GARs build social capital through its settlement programs.
Other recommendations focus on the income assistance the federal government provides to GARs during their first year in Canada. We recommend reducing the claw-back on federal income assistance for earned income by recipients to encourage GARs to find employment, as the current claw-back rate greatly undercuts the incentive to work. The government should also extend eligibility for federal income support to 24 months so that this threshold can be more relevant to the actual settlement pathways of GARs.
Our additional recommendations focus on issues that impact both GARs and other populations, specifically, data collection and combatting discrimination. The federal government should direct Statistics Canada to work with partners to collect and deploy timely data on resettled refugee experiences with social programs and employment. Finally, government should establish a national strategy to combat discrimination, with an emphasis on Islamophobia and anti-black racism, which tend to disproportionately affect resettled refugee groups.
The report uses the term ‘former refugee’ because refugee is not an enduring description of someone’s status in Canada. Once GARs arrive in Canada they are granted permanent residency status and no longer refugees. We think it is important to acknowledge them as such.
Recommendation 1: The Government of Canada should support the development of collaborative options in which GARs can access programs to simultaneously improve their language skills while acquiring Canadian work experience and earning wages.
Recommendation 2: The Government of Canada should support the prioritization of creating enhanced social capital for GARs through an emphasis on social bridging/integration.
Recommendation 3: The Government of Canada should reduce the amount of the claw-back on income above 50 percent of the Resettlement Assistance Program amount from 100 percent to 50 percent to encourage former refugees to find full-time employment.
Recommendation 4: The Government of Canada should extend Resettlement Assistance Program eligibility to 24 months.
Recommendation 5: The Government of Canada should direct Statistics Canada to work with federal ministries, provincial governments and settlement agencies to collect and publicly distribute relevant, updated and on-time data regarding newcomer refugees, and especially relating to uptake of different social programs and employment.
Recommendation 6: The Government of Canada should establish a national strategy to combat discrimination against former refugees, with an emphasis on Islamophobia and anti-black racism.
The report is also available in French.
Other recent PPF publications
Source:
Research at a Glance is designed to inform the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) community and other interested parties about recently published, policy-relevant research from government, academic and NGO sources. The views expressed in the documents described do not necessarily reflect those of IRCC.
This study sought to better understand the needs of existing and potential users of open data as released by IRCC on open.canada.ca, and to inform ongoing efforts to unlock the potential applications of open data to support newcomer settlement and integration in Canada.
Findings and Recommendations
A data hungry stakeholder community
All stakeholders view data as essential (fairly important, or very important) in carrying out their mission and work, and all have several staff members dedicated to collecting, assembling and analyzing data. In some cases, those responsibilities are shared between different staff members. As one stakeholder put it, demographic facts are essentially the foundation of any research on immigration. They turn to data in order to see what’s actually going on on the ground and to understand the trends and gaps in services available to refugees and newcomers. Moreover, data directs strategic decision?making for seven out of the eight stakeholders surveyed. From the data, they can then develop policies and programs, plan accordingly and further evaluate their activities.
Issues of discoverability
When familiar with the IRCC’s catalog (as listed on the Open Government portal at open.canada.ca) ?? which was not the case for all ?? several stakeholders noted that the catalog is not only difficult to navigate, but that the open data source is not widely known as well. Indeed, there seems to be very limited knowledge about open data itself among stakeholders.
Gaps in data offerings
As the majority of the stakeholders surveyed are province?based organizations working to integrate immigrants within their regions (i.e. these are not national organizations), one of the glaring absences in regards to the data available is provincial and municipal data, either produced by these orders of government, or available by breakdown at the provincial and municipal levels. In some cases, data doesn’t have the level of granularity that is required to conduct useful analysis at the local level. Respondents brought up the fact that the lack of data concerning provincial health records, labour market assessments, Express Entry recipients, permanent residents and interprovincial mobility have left them scrambling to find data elsewhere in order to get a more complete picture.
Maze of communication
Whether it is to ask questions, confirm interpretations, discuss applications or to report errors, all respondents have needed at one point or another to contact someone responsible for the data. What stands out from the online survey, however, is that there does not seem to be one standard method of engagement. There is currently no way to constructively provide IRCC with feedback. The inability to contextualise IRCC data is an impediment to innovation within the settlement and newcomer sector. Stakeholders were calling for an open data approach that went beyond the supply and demand model for one that factored the context of data users and producers.
Literacy and capacity issues
Stakeholders’ levels of literacy with regards to the legal and technical aspects of open data seem to be fairly low. They readily admit that they are unaware of the licensing issues around open data, which, as far as the interview process could determine, did not indicate any problematic uses of government data. For example, six out of the eight respondents said that they were not at all familiar with the Version 2.0 of the Open Government Licence which governs the terms of use of open government data. It is important to note that this raises an interesting paradox: while most respondents say that they have knowledge of open data principles, many of them are not actually aware of the terms of use, nor how the data is produced and by whom.
When it comes to technical literacy, most respondents seem to have difficulty forming an opinion on data encoding and data formats, so much so that most cannot seem to identify specific challenges regarding these issues. However, one thing is clear: most respondents are seeking a better standardization process and a more user?friendly interface.
In addition to our four-stage blended learning teacher training, since 2015 the LearnIT2Teach project has been developing, piloting and hosting online training for Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada (LINC) managers or lead teachers. The aim has been to encourage emerging learning technology leadership and build knowledge and awareness of blended learning opportunities and challenges facing local leaders.
In this report the author looks at the survey results from participants and the lessons for course enhancement. He also includes many thoughtful quotes posted on course discussion boards by participants. For anyone interested in innovating with LINC blended learning, the report has useful information about what LINC leaders are encountering as they try to put LINC blended learning to work in their institutions. The result is a summary of important lessons for the sector about learning technology innovation.
With so much discussion of the place of information technology in learning today, perhaps nowhere is it more relevant than the settlement language training sector of adult education. Language educators are asking: What are appropriate applications of technology? How can technology serve adult newcomers? Can e-learning improve language program outcomes? Can it increase learner participation and retention in language training programs?
From an adult newcomer’s point of view, how can information technology assist the immigration project? Can technology skills facilitate learning English and enable more flexible, accessible course delivery? Government funders and policymakers are asking all of these questions AND if learning technology innovation can make settlement language training more effective and efficient.
What follows in this Executive Summary is a description of the evaluation standards with recommendations culled from the body of this report:
STANDARD 1 Development of personal leadership skills to support learning technology innovation in an SLT program
Progressive SLT professionals still encounter serious local challenges even when they do understand the role of leadership in the innovation process. Additional evidence to indicate how well this standard was achieved by participants would have been available if their plans for local innovation were more evolved by the end of the last unit of the courses. A better developed local plan should be a requirement in future iterations of the courses. For example, in future participants could be required to write and define their personal role and next steps toward meeting local blended language training challenges.
STANDARD 2 Understanding of the roles that each stakeholder (funders, managers, teachers and learners) play in successful learning technology integration
Many discussion board postings reflected a high awareness of the needs and perspectives of managers, teachers and learners. The missing element was the role of funders and the need for service providers to engage with funder(s) to raise awareness of the challenges and opportunities represented by better practices in learning technology, especially flexible delivery models and improve program outcomes and effectiveness.
Recommended is continued engagement with and among the participants in the course to share experiences and lessons in building innovation partnerships with funder(s). The next step is gathering ‘alumni’ in webinars, ongoing discussion boards (i.e. what’s happened since the courses ended), and longitudinal surveys.
STANDARD 3 Understanding of the innovation process and the foundations of Innovations Theory
The recommendation in Standard 2 to continue to support ‘alumni’ intercommunication through webinars, surveys and discussion boards to enhance understanding and skill to support
the innovation process also applies to this standard. Ongoing engagement will encourage shared practice and lessons learned by reflecting experiences of the local innovation process across a range of service providers.
In addition, the course design included a requirement for a ‘capstone’ assignment at the end of Part 2; a rather vague requirement for the participant to provide the foundation of a plan for continued local innovation with blended learning. This assignment generated very uneven and incomplete responses. A first recommendation is to revise the Part 2, Unit 6 assignment to be more structured and specific. This assignment should also be leveraged to provide the agenda for ongoing Community of Practice discussions, including local progress reports in the months and even years following the course.
STANDARD 4 Increased awareness of theory and evidence which supports better learning technology practices in the SLT sector
To expand on the case for learning technology presented in the course, more evidence is required. Evidence for LINC blended learning that exists, as reflected in the forums, is mainly anecdotal or culled from other, non-immigrant, research on modes of language training. A demonstration research project located in a service provider organization that has made the transition to LINC blended learning (Edulinc) could begin by looking at the courseware’s impact on learning and teaching. Potential questions to be posed to the research could examine gains in self-efficacy, language proficiency or settlement-adaptation.
STANDARD 5 Understanding of core persuasion and leadership strategies to support learning technology innovation within the participant’s organization
Participation in the course by sector professionals was voluntary, and we can surmise that they self-selected as technology innovators. Most had already taken steps locally in their programs to implement blended learning. Rogers research posits an organizational S-curve to describe the rate of adoption for an innovation, typically beginning with an initial adoption by a few individuals, and progressing toward the final innovation stage when just a few outliers eventually adopt. In the LTIL training, participants’ local innovation projects were all past the initial stage but otherwise, each of their innovation instances was unique in terms of the barriers and opportunities it faced (Rogers, 2005, p.23). The survey and discussion board data indicate positive thoughtful responses to the readings on leadership in the course. For greater certainty under this standard and others, a scale that encouraged participants to rate and comment for each reading, podcast or video in the course would provide additional data to assess the impact of the curricula.
STANDARD 6 Awareness of the role program evaluation and effective communication can play in supporting local learning technology innovation
Evaluation questions were specific to the latter units of the training, mainly the final unit of Part 2. Beginning the evaluation discussion earlier in the course and threading it through earlier units is a recommendation.
STANDARD 7 Articulation of a plan for local learning technology innovation.
All participants were actively engaged in the courses in discussing and sharing planning. However, a more structured capstone assignment requiring development of the broad elements of a local plan for blended learning technology innovation should be a requirement of future iterations of the course.
A revised Part 2, Unit 6 assignment would be something like this: “Address your personal role in innovation in your language training program and your response to the blended language training innovation challenge and your strategy for moving your program forward. Include your next steps to implementing blended learning in your language training program, your approach to leadership and your mid and longer term strategy for implementation and ongoing evaluation.”
STANDARD 8 Ongoing engagement in an online community of settlement language training practitioners.
The project should encourage all alumni to engage in an ongoing Community of Practice by creating further opportunities to share goals, plans, challenges, barriers and opportunities for blended learning innovation beyond the time frame of the online course.
This article discusses social media use by asylum migrants prior to and during migration. This study is based on in-depth interviews with 54 Syrian asylum migrants who recently obtained refugee status in the Netherlands.
Syrians were the largest group of migrants applying for asylum in European Union (EU) member states in 2015 and 2016. The findings show that the majority of Syrian asylum migrants have access to social media information before and during migration, often through the use of smartphones. Besides uneven access to technologies, fear of government surveillance restricts the smartphone use of asylum migrants. The results of this study indicate that Syrian asylum migrants prefer social media information that originates from existing social ties and information that is based on personal experiences. Generally, this information is considered more trustworthy. Asylum migrants use various strategies to validate rumors that are present on social media and come from unknown sources. These strategies include checking the source of information, validating information with trusted social ties, triangulation of online sources, and comparing information with their own experience.
Overview
Social media are increasingly popular channels of information on which migrants base their decisions on whether to migrate and the destinations where to settle. While social media offer a relatively cheap, easily accessible, and media-rich means of communication, their use is not without challenges for asylum migrants. Various studies describe issues with access and evaluation of the truthfulness of available information for this specific group of migrants.
The authors present findings on Syrian refugees’ access to social media information—mostly via smartphones. This adds to existing theories on social media use during migration and risks of and impediments to social media access. Subsequently, this study explores how Syrian refugees evaluate the trustworthiness of social media information and how hey validate information by various strategies. This provides insight into how information from social media was assessed in migration decision-making. From the perspective of the migrant, the study gives insight into online contact with smugglers, the reception of government information, and the evaluation of other networked information. These accounts of assessment of social media information contribute to theories on “information precarity” and “rumors” in migration networks.
Conclusion and Discussion
This study shows that a majority of Syrian refugees had access to social media information prior to and during their migration, often through the use of smartphones. We can characterize them as “smart refugees”—referring not only to “smart” phones with distinct polymedia affordances but also to what asylum migrants gain from using this device: information and communication resources that are essential for developing “smart” strategies of migration. These resources empower asylum migrants when dealing with more powerful actors such as smugglers or border control agencies.
The authors' analysis demonstrates that asylum migrants have developed strategies to maintain access to social media, to avoid government surveillance, and to validate social media information. The majority of our respondents expressed doubt about the trustworthiness of certain types of social media information. Information coming from known social ties and information from government authorities and NGOs are trusted the most. Also for asylum migrants, the existing social ties are still the most highly trusted source. Information that is publicly available on social media and comes from unknown sources was less trusted and often labeled as “rumors.” This is an interesting finding as closed information networks of known sources might just as well sustain rumors and prevent external validation. Future research should focus more extensively on which social ties are considered to be trusted. In traditional migrant networks, these are mostly strong ties of family and friends whom they know in person. For the generation of “digital natives”, online ties in well known online communities or platforms may have become part of this group of trusted ties.
The findings support the conclusion that the use of smartphones and social media information makes asylum migrants less dependent on smugglers and network ties in Western Europe.
Since 2014, millions of refugees and migrants have arrived at the borders of Europe. This article argues that, in making their way to safe spaces, refugees rely not only on a physical but increasingly also digital infrastructure of movement.
Social media, mobile devices, and similar digitally networked technologies comprise this infrastructure of “digital passages”—sociotechnical spaces of flows in which refugees, smugglers, governments, and corporations interact with each other and with new technologies. At the same time, a digital infrastructure for movement can just as easily be leveraged for surveillance and control. European border policies, in particular, instantiate digital controls over refugee movement and identity. The authors review the actors, technologies, and policies of movement and control in the EU context and argue that scholars, policymakers, and the tech community alike should pay heed to the ethics of the use of new technologies in refugee and migration flows.
Overview
Focusing on the context of the highly mediatized arrival of refugees and migrants at the borders of Europe in 2015–2016, the authors illustrate how refugees, human traffickers, governments, and the private sector interact in this new digital environment. Refugees are able to rely on digital networks to both communicate with distant family members and locate the resources they need. Yet, those same tools are increasingly also used to exploit their vulnerabilities. For instance, the movement of refugees is facilitated by digital platforms provided by multinational corporations. But the design of those platforms is rarely catered toward the specific needs and risks inherent to the refugee experience. Furthermore, refugees must contend with the fact that similar technologies are used by governments to increase their control over borders, migration, and the access to asylum.
The authors examine what they call the new digital passage for movement and explore the inherent tensions that are embedded in the sociotechnical relationships that it enables. They conclude with a discussion of the risks and benefits inherent to the digital passage and urge researchers, policymakers, and the tech community alike to pay heed to the ethical questions surrounding the use of digital technologies in modern migration and refugee flows.
Looking Ahead: Beyond Technological Solutionism
In February 2016, European government and border control officials met with representatives from a variety of tech companies to develop “technical solutions” to the refugee crisis. The proposals range from “a smartcard ID system” for the distribution of food and services to “tempt[ing] refugees to download tracking apps on their smartphones by offering helpful information about sea crossings and conditions in different EU countries” (Taylor & Graham-Harrison, 2016). At the same time, a group of well-meaning computer scientists, engineers, and startup representatives from across the world have joined forces to organize a series of “techfugee” conferences with a similar goal (Techfugees, 2016). The difference lies in how these actors define “the solution”: European government and border control officials are incentivized to utilize digital infrastructures to reinforce physical borders and maximize control over refugees; “digital humanitarians,” on the other hand, may seek to develop technologies to facilitate and support the freedom of movement.
There is no easy answer to the question of whether or not the digital passage ultimately benefits or harms vulnerable populations. However, we would urge academics, policymakers, and the tech community alike to grapple with this question before experimenting with new technologies in the context of refugee and migration flows. Most importantly, we have to remain mindful that there is not, in fact, “an app for everything” (Latonero, 2016a) and meaningfully addressing the current refugee crisis—one that extends far beyond the borders of Europe moreover—also, if not primarily, requires physical assistance on the ground. At the same time, for those cases in which digital technologies can facilitate (or impede upon) the movement of asylum seekers and migrants, the people and institutions demanding and developing those “solutions” need to be cognizant of the particular needs and risks inherent to the refugee experience.
This article has tried to map out the contours of a new digital infrastructure for movement and the ways in which it is navigated by government officials, tech representatives, human traffickers, and the refugees themselves. This focus on refugees exemplifies a broader research approach wherein the dual use nature of technologies can only be understood upon investigating how such technologies play out in specific social contexts—particularly in human rights and humanitarian contexts where vulnerable populations are concerned. As the tools that comprise new digital infrastructures expand in scope and usage in the near future, we should make sure to remain mindful of the ethics of the digital passage, with a particular focus on individual’s fundamental rights to privacy, freedom of movement, asylum, and, above all, human dignity.
Context
The report states that under the Conclusions and Recommendations of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) environmental scan into "Research and Promising Practices in Refugee Youth Services", program features it is recommended to "Use social media and new technologies as a way to multiply the channels of communication".
This ISSofBC report seeks to extend this recommendation to explore:
How to leverage technology securely and safely to provide additional support for refugee youth coming to Canada, taking advantage of the pre-arrival time, and current and future partnerships with government agencies and other involved organizations.
In compiling this report through interviews and review of existing research, the authors looked at the following questions to guide recommendations for the problem statement:
The key recommendations of this document attempt to provide a set of actionable steps for immediate implementation. Through these steps the related organisations and programs will increase the learning and gain momentum for further and farther- reaching technology implementations to support refugees including youth.
General Observations
A brief compilation of observations and findings gathered through research and interviews.
Summary of Findings
This paper provides a small contribution to supporting the further development and delivery of programs for refugee youth prior to their arrival in Canada. Refugee youth settling in Canada face challenges including severe culture shock, apprehension and anxiety, social integration, navigating the education system, discrimination and bullying, as well as generally adjusting to a new life in Canada. By providing additional mentoring and support to refugee youth prior to their arrival in Canada, it is proven that refugee youth greatly benefit and are better prepared to face these challenges. By leveraging technology to deliver these additional services across the varied locations of refugee youth, it is expected that refugee youth will complete resettlement more rapidly and move forward in to appropriate further services designed to support the next steps of their journey and their needs.
It is important to note that the demographic of this report represents a smaller audience when considering the general demographic of programs and services focussed on reaching refugee youth not limited to GAR youth. Therefore, existing refugee youth programs and initiatives should be leveraged to “springboard” and offer additional and focussed benefits for the demographics of this report, whilst minimising the resource investment in this smaller audience.
Interviews and preliminary research and analysis confirm the understanding that both the availability and accessibility of technology, as well as the adoption and choice of technology, for refugee youth, differs significantly between locations. This is evident when considering the implementation of the IOM’s Cultural Orientation Abroad program which has 20 permanent sites yet extends its reach with “mobile teams” to cover over 60 locations. The variation of technology availability and capacity between these permanent sites within this one organisation is significant. The variation to the more than 40 additional sites, ranging from hotels to schools or other community available sites, is further and more significant.
Research indicates the East Africa region has reduced accessibility to technology and more specifically to the internet, which is a key channel to providing services via technology to refugee youth. This finding readily relates to the history of the region including the age and volume of refugee camps like Dadaab opened more than 25 years ago. Whilst successful efforts to implement secondary schools and educational centers in these camps bring technology and the internet to many refugee youth, the sheer volume of these camps means that the need continues to exceed the availability of technology resources.
Though refugee youth access to technology varies by location, it was identified that access to technology is possible in almost all locations, at least to a minimum.
Refugee youth with access to technology appear to align with the global norms in terms of preference for usage and adoption. Internet usage is primarily used for communication with family and friends, and for entertainment, prioritized over looking for information. Social Media applications adopted by youth are identified as WhatsApp, Instagram, Viber, YouTube, Facebook and Facebook Messenger, and Skype. In line with youth social norms, applications that primarily leverage private group and peer to peer scenarios are preferred e.g. Messenger over Facebook.
The political and media focus on the refugee crisis in Europe has demonstrated how mobile technology has proved to be a lifeline for refugees to navigate their journeys and resettle in new European countries. However, the fact remains that all of the world’s top ten refugee hosting countries are outside of Europe. MNOs and humanitarian agencies have been delivering mobile connectivity and creating innovative services for refugees in a variety of rural and urban contexts in Africa, Asia and the Middle East for many years. There are wide-ranging lessons that can be shared across sectors and regions on the challenges and opportunities of providing mobile connectivity and services to this segment of the population which will be explored in this report.
Current research and activities on refugees use of mobile technology focus largely on the following themes:
This report provides a summary of each of these themes.
This report is a synthesis of recent literature on how information can be used to address settlement and integration barriers experienced by newcomers to Canada.
Overview and findings
The provision of information is a fundamental component of assisting immigrants with their settlement and integration needs. Information may facilitate access to and use of services, assist immigrants in their navigation of the Canadian system, promote realistic expectations of what immigrants will face upon arrival in Canada and in the first few years of settlement, and promote knowledge of the Canadian way of life. Newcomers to Canada seek and use information in complex ways to integrate into Canadian society.
A review of the relevant academic literature from 2005-2011 was undertaken in order to provide insight into how information can be used to overcome barriers to integration in six domains of life in Canada:
The review pointed to a dearth of research in this area, with health care proving to be somewhat of an exception. The research available suggested the specific types of information that should be provided to newcomers, and overall indicated that newcomers would benefit from information provided in their native languages to ensure comprehension and from information provided in a variety of formats and venues to optimize access and utilization. The specific types of information most needed by newcomers may be classified as fitting into two main categories:
A review of the literature from 2005-2011 on optimal strategies for providing information to newcomers was also undertaken. This review suggested that one of the primary sources of information for newcomers is the internet, and that in addition to ensuring that information is provided in a variety of languages, the use of video and audio should be considered. It is also the case that the provision of information should be attuned to cultural differences in communication style, with individuals from high-context cultures (e.g., China, Philippines, India) being particularly responsive to cues outside of the explicit message being presented. As a result, websites providing information to newcomers should consider the use of images and animation, in addition to text. The use of new social media should also be explored, including Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter.
The review points to many gaps in our knowledge of how best to provide information to newcomers to Canada. In addition to describing specific topics in need of future research attention, a model of information provision and use by newcomers is presented. The model suggests that information providers must consider the intended targets of their messages, the content and format of messages, and the source and context of information provision. This model can be used to organize the previous literature in this area, guide future research, and ultimately facilitate the development of strategies for the provision of information to newcomers that are most likely to be well-utilized and effective.
A Model of Information Provision and Use by Newcomers
The provision of information to newcomers would do well to be situated within a model of information processing so that important aspects of access to and use of information are not overlooked. The authors recommend and outline the use of one particular model: the psychological model of persuasive communication. This model suggests that it is important to examine three aspects of a persuasive communication:
By examining all three factors, and their interactions, we can develop information strategies that are most likely to be well-utilized and effective.
For refugees, Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and mobile technologies can help with relocation, provide the means to stay connected to family and friends, and learn about the new cultural environment.
In this paper, the authors examine the role of social media in facilitating and building transcultural communication and connections for forced migrants in today’s contexts of resettlement. The authors' focus is on recently resettled Syrian refugee youth in Ottawa, who arrived in Canada as part of a federal government resettlement initiative in 2015-2016.
Overview
Based on the findings of a qualitative study comprised of focus groups with Syrian refugee youth, both female and male between the ages of 16-25, they investigate the everyday use of social media in the process of resettlement and integration. Using thematic analysis, they draw on the concept of transculturality to discuss the role of social media as a space for transcultural coming-together that can assist in becoming familiarized with a new culture and society. The authors suggest that social media serve as a ‘contact zone’ that enables cultural sharing and learning, a mechanism for cultural and linguistic ‘translation’, and a ‘borderlands’ that may help bridge cultural differences and build connections while also negotiating a sense of belonging. Through a critical engagement with these findings they ponder the significance of social media for enabling refugee agency and as a transcultural ‘virtual’ space that enhances refugees’ resettlement and integration.
Key findings
Social media as contact zone: Transcultural learning and sharing
One central finding emerging from focus group discussions was the role of social media as a contact zone that helped Syrian refugee youth to learn about Canada, its culture, languages, and everyday life. Moreover, participants indicated that they used social media to share information about Canada with other Syrians (both in Canada and elsewhere), while also sharing information about Syria, thus effectively creating opportunities for transcultural meeting and exchange. Syrian refugee youth can exercise a degree of control when using social media to help them access the information they need in the resettlement process, especially in regard to language use and code switching on social media platforms. Moreover, we found that the use of social media can help these youth navigate a new society by providing digital tools of cultural and linguistic translation.
A small number of participants mentioned that they had turned to ICTs to find information about Canada before the resettlement process. The majority, however, explained that it was not until after arriving in Canada that they used both online tools (e.g., Google search) and various social media (Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Snapchat) to learn more about the country, including its geography, people, culture and traditions.
Participants relied on both online tools and social media; the latter seemed especially useful to these youth because of their interactive features and the opportunities for active transcultural exchange in the process of learning and adapting to a new society.
Participants were acutely aware of the linguistic tools available to them within the ICTs they use. In this sense, participants were able to manifest a sense of empowerment in choosing which languages they used for each platform. Despite being limited to only English in some situations, this in turn developed a sense of linguistic control as they developed code switching skills between English and Arabic. Moreover, of interest here is that social media, in spite of being virtual, also encompass a very practical dimension through their everyday use. The very use of social media (the interaction with visual symbols, the typing of keywords, contents such as text and videos, etc.) provides an interface for learning and practicing a new language.
Building new social networks and sense of belonging
The use of social media to build social networks was another major theme raised by Syrian refugee youth during the focus group discussions. These social networks took three primary forms: connecting with family and friends in Syria and/or in other countries, connecting with other Syrians in Ottawa, and connecting with Canadians and developing new friendships in Ottawa. In all cases, participants stressed the importance of using social media such as WhatsApp, Snapchat, and Facebook in order to help bridge cultural differences and strengthen ties in a new country. In this sense, social media represent not only a contact zone, but also a borderlands that allows Syrian refugee youth to maintain, develop and negotiate networks with people located in multiple places and in different cultures, while also mediating the creation of new connections in a new cultural context. In this process, it emerged that social media use contributes to a sense of belonging both ‘here’ and ‘there’. Moreover, findings provide insight into the agency of Syrian refugee youth through the use of social media to build connections, and the complex dynamics between virtual, physical, and social spaces in so doing.
Another aspect that social media use helped our participants to manage was to not forget their past lives. The use of social media enabled them to stay connected with people in the place of origin; to some extent this connection helps to maintain a sense of belonging over ‘there’, or to a place outside of Canada. These findings support existing research on the role of ICTs in assisting with maintaining sustained communication across borders, especially for separated families.
Social media proved especially useful for Syrian refugee youth to connect with Canadians and to negotiate a sense of belonging in Canada. In particular, participants discussed the fact that social media helped them to build new friendships by easing communication with Canadians.
These findings provide insights into how these young people use social media to develop new social networks. Social media provide a virtual contact zone where Syrian refugee youth can connect with Canadians with relative ease. Specifically, participants indicated that they are using social media as a tool to negotiate Syrian and Canadian cultures. In this sense, social media represent a borderlands where these youth can forge new friendships across cultural differences. Furthermore, the findings illustrate complex dynamics between virtual and physical space; social media can facilitate the development of in-person contact and vice versa. In so doing, refugee youth may arguably feel they have some control in building new connections through the complementary use of social media and face-to-face communication. Here again, social media can be seen as a resource that allows refugees to negotiate the process of resettlement on their own terms.
Conclusion
ICTs and social media as technologies that support transculturality. Specifically the data from this study suggest that they represent mechanisms of transculturalization by supporting virtual spaces for transcultural learning and sharing, by facilitating cultural and linguistic translation, and for building transcultural connections and bridging cultural differences. In this way, social media use in contexts of forced migration and resettlement can help refugees to negotiate and even construct a sense of belonging to two (or more) cultures and places simultaneously. To this end, the authors recognize social media as a virtual transcultural space, a contact zone of multiple cultures, and a borderlands where refugees as individuals can negotiate cultural differences.
As refugee youth, these young men and women were able to make successful use of their technological skills to alleviate and actively address some of the social and cultural challenges typically attributed to resettlement: access to information, language acquisition, transcultural communication, missing home, making friends, fitting in, and building a sense of belonging. To this extent, our study adds empirical evidence to emerging research on immigrants’ strategic use of multiple media sources in the settlement and integration process, and on the integrative potential of various types of media.
Findings point to the potential benefits of using ICTs and social media to complement, develop and consolidate the provision of resettlement services. For example, settlement agencies can make use of social groups on Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram to disseminate essential information to refugees regarding services and resources, while also following up after face-to-face services on an individual basis. With this in mind, policy makers should take into account refugees’ usage of ICTs and social media as means to communicate and transmit information when designing and implementing resettlement initiatives.
It is essential to highlight that the use of social media and ICTs allows refugees to exercise agency and have a sense of control over their resettlement experience. Research participants’ adept navigation of social media demonstrates their resilience and creativity in staying up-to-date with the growing technology trends and in making the most of them in rebuilding their lives. As young people in a new country, these Syrian youth turned to digital tools as a means to enact change and take control of their future.
A major theme resonating through findings was the level of personal empowerment that these technologies afford individuals in contexts of displacement, leading us to believe in the power of new possibilities.
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